hey guys i have a problem with my brakes and i wondering if it has to do with the back drums not being adjusted right. when i first got the car i had to replace all the brakes because the back shoes were falling apart and im sure the front ones needed replacing and the worked better but now it seems like the rears either grab to much or the front brakes are not working. i blead out all of them and still no differance. the brake pedal now seems to travel to far but when i adjust the rears so the at i guess you could call it closer the the drum or tighter they are really touchy and throw you forward... so dose anyone have any ideas or sugestions on what to do. thank greatly appreciated.

 

There is a porportioning valve (unless someone removed it - highly unlikely) that distributes a higher line pressure to the front than rear....typically 30% rear. Based on this, I'd guess you have an issue with your front brakes. If you have economy pads on front, it may take soime time to "burnish" them in....which typically takes a few hundred brake stops around 0.2g. If you do this and find it does not help, try bleeding your master cylinder. Air in the master will deteriorate the entire system and could make the rears more prominent. Let us know what you find

 

well i actually changed the pads quite sometime ago and recently i have blead them and it probably needed it cause it was way black. is there any way to check and see if the front breaks are working properly?

 

Without a g meter, calculator and vehicle weights, there's no way to check if they are working "properly", but you can obviously raise the corner and make sure it is stopping the wheel. You might try a slow speed, high effort stop on gravel....but that can be inconclusive.

Did you bleed your master?

 

yea i did i actually did it about a week ago and there was no differance but when i adjust the rear drums more i get more pedal and vise versa but it still jerks forward like its grabbing really fast and not gradually with the pressur of the pedal. im hoping its not the power booster or anything very expensive..

 

I think you really need to go through start to finish & rebleed - again. Start with the master cylinder. Then RR, LR, RF and LF. Be sure to run at least a cup or two of fluid as you might have a trapped bubble. I worked with hundreds of brake systems (used to be brake dev engineer)....what you have makes no sense....when your brake system has compliance in it (either air in it, bad/collapsed brake line, etc), you will not get good pedal fee and a possible imbalance in your F/R braking performance. Our F bodies were designed with what is called a vertical split system, which is one outlet of the MC goes to the LR & RR and the other to the LF & RF. This is in contrast to a diagonal split that one MC outlet goes to LF & RR and the other RF & LF...these are typically for FWD cars. I am very doubtful it's your booster, but you might check the vacuum connection.

Let us know!

 

how do you do the master? i guess i didnt do that but i did all the other ones..

 

The simpliest way to bleed the master is pressurize the system like you do for the brakes, except you crack the line at the MC outlet. Doing this followed up with all four sequenced corners would ensure you have no air. If you happen to be replacing the MC, bench bleed it first before installing.

There are a few areas you could go into the weeds.....One common mistake I see is the person pushing the brake pedal and the one cracking the bleed screw are out of sync. It is imperative that the bleed screw is closed BEFORE the person lets their foot off the pedal. It can be tough to maintain a constant pedal force. Another is letting the brake pedal fall too fast for the pedal pusher to keep up and sometimes bounces off the floor which lets more air in. The control here is with the person at the bleed screw. What I do to avoid that is to loosen the bleed screw (and retighten very little) before anyone climbs in the car, then with both hands on the wrench (and the brake pusher pushing the brakes) move the wrench very slowly...and don't always wait for the pusher to say "down"...this will avoid accidental pedal movement at the end of travel.